Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Apparently There Is Insufficient Evidence That Women Do Things

Jezebel notes that Molly Templeton, a former alt-weekly editor (w00t!) now cast into the cold sea of self-employment with the rest of us, was really annoyed at the latest NYT Book Review cover. Have a look at it and see if you can figure out why.

(There are several options here, I suppose. Why are they all about writing? Will Dave Eggers ever stop being a Thing? How have we stumbled into this precious little hall of mirrors, and why is it so yellow?)

I’m sure there’s something you know how to do. I’m sure there are things
your many brilliant friends know how to do, or something you could
write about that has to do with doing a thing (most of the NYTBR pieces were, of course, book reviews).

Basically, if there is something you know how to do, and you're one of those women-people, Molly Templeton would like for you to write a how-to essay about it for her blog. Which shall stand as a glorious beacon in the night, shining with the deeply inspiring light of Women Doing Things.

I found an excerpt from that last one, about the "wild and womanly"* fisherladies and how best to emulate them, particularly striking:

You have nothing to prove, and you have everything to prove. It is the
paradox of being a woman, and of being part of a species that loves to
categorize itself into small and confining subspecies. You are doing
this for yourself, whether for your career or for the experience, not
for anyone else. Yet you paradoxically have suddenly come to represent
any woman wishing to do something seen as beyond her
physical/mental/natural capacity.

There's a lot of adverbs in there, so I could be wrong, but I think this tortured passage might be some sort of cri de coeur about how vastly irritating it is to have to go around in life being a goddamned ambassador for three and a half billion other people all the time.** In a blog whose entire purpose for existing is to represent all thing-doing women everywhere. What?

Not gonna lie: Everything about this -- from the NYT's insufferable twee-ness, to Jezebel's vacant signal-boosting, to the earnest curation of Things Women Can (And Do) Do as an antidote to misogyny everywhere -- annoys me right down to the depths of my blighted ovaries.

Required Reading

About Me

"It Is Not Done Well, But You Are Surprised To Find It Done At All."
If you're here for newspaper women blogging about newspapers writing about women blogging -- and ice-fishing -- and drinking Brandy -- and buying Motor-Cars -- and becoming Police-Officers -- and doing all manner of People-Type Things -- you've come to the right place. Welcome to the spleen-o-dome.